Snow Day

So I called all of my closest friends in the area over to have a house party. I figured I'd make the best out of this slide show project by making the photography objects my acquaintances. I got my hands on a nifty tripod, cleared off a wall in my room, stole some lamps from around my apartment, and started to shoot.

The title of the series is called "It Makes Me Want To Smile/Cry/Laugh/Scream!" (in no particular order) The "build" in the slide show is a build of emotion, starting from depression/laissez faire and ending in anger. Each person was placed in front of a camera and as I played a song from my iTunes, they had to act out the emotion they felt from it. Their arsenal for each photo was a frame from which I removed the glass. I got some interesting results. All in all it was fun and the beginning of many more photography parties. Last year I realized just how much I dislike event photography; I like to have fun when I go out with my friends and lugging around a machine with me was always a hassle. Especially since once you get that lens up in the air, candid fun becomes posed and the magic loses its authenticity sometimes. I was never a fan of capturing landscapes either. You can never beat God's art; landscapes always look so much better in person. However, I love taking photos of people. There is something about photography and post-production that allows one to really glorify and bring out different colors and emotions in a person.

That probably sounds so weird.

So this is pretty much what I did, and I had a lot of fun with it. Unfortunately, this past Tuesday I was unable to drive to school for class due to weather conditions. At that point in time I had about six or seven people shot with varying emotions. I figured that I could shoot three more, so I invited three photogenic friends over for some steaks and a photo shoot. What was the most fun was having friends share a frame because not only did they play off of the music for their poses, but the interaction took away from the awkwardness most people have and it fueled the creativity for more interesting shots. We finished shooting at around 6:30 and I spent the next hour or so editing all of the photos that I had. A couple of batches unfortunately didn't make it. I was partially using my room window as a source of fill light and because of the difficulty of catching all of my friends because of their schedules, it was hard getting consistent lighting. Some of my shots barely made it, but they were all worth it.

Some photos look better with a pure white back and others with a nice yellow/orange tint.

I'm still not sure what this will look like in the end, but in the meanwhile, and with this new project extension I heard of, I will be getting more photos of more people. I like my idea and I'm gonna run with it.